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Privatizing prisons has ethical problems

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Saturday April 9, 2011 3:07 AM

Privatizing prisons has ethical problems -

I was listening to a discussion about the privatization of prisons in Ohio on WOSU (820 AM) radio as I was driving the other
morning. I was distressed at the way the moderator dismissed what I believe to be a genuine ethical issue brought up by two
callers.

The ethical issue I believe the callers were getting at is: How do we as a society justify the establishment of for-profit
businesses that depend on humans who are held involuntarily?

Another question posed to the moderator was about how much for-profit private prisons make.

This question was asked several times, and each time the answer given by the moderator was some version of how much money
the state saved.

How much money the state saves by prison privatization does not at all address the question of how much profit the private
prisons make.

The issue of profits relates essentially to the initial ethical question.

That ethical question was not addressed and was dismissed on the grounds that the caller compared involuntary incarceration
in a for-profit prison to slavery.

The moderator did not want to pursue that angle, but it is a genuinely good ethical question.

The state benefits by outsourcing (privatizing) its obligation to its residents.

Are there not ethical concerns when it is also the state that commits its residents involuntarily to these private prisons?

Does this not set up a potentially abusive system?

If the state imposes punishments on its residents, then the state should be responsible for the administration of those punishments.

We, the citizens, have a vested interest in the success of this system, as fellow citizens return to the community.

I believe the ethical problems raised in requiring labor from the prison population are very different if it is the state,
and not a private business, that is extracting that labor.

Labor required by the state as a compensation to society has a certain reasonable justification. Labor as a way to teach discipline
and skills, imposed and overseen by the state on unruly citizens has a reasonable justification.

Hiring a for-profit business to do these jobs for the state does pose ethical problems worthy of a debate.

I disliked the way the discussion was dismissed because, at the very least, the state has a serious responsibility of oversight,
regulation and profit limitations.